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Numeracy
Kuraŋo's numeracy system is simple when compared to English, but it has a few kinks to it. The cardinal root ɾɔ Cardinal numbers in Kuraŋo are marked with the cardinal root ɾɔ. If glossed by itself, it translates to "number" as an abstract concept. However, it more commonly appears with the numeracy suffixes, discussed below. Numeracy suffixes Kuraŋo's capability to talk about any number comes from combination of ten morphemes that represent the numbers 0-9. These morphemes have underlying forms that obey syllable structure rules for Kuraŋo, but they are commonly discussed as though they only have consonants in their stems. This is because of an overarching vowel harmony rule based on whether or not the initial numeral suffix is odd or even, but more on this later. So, ɾɔxaɾa would gloss to "one," but these suffixes can also gloss to other nouns. An example would be ɔʔatikutu, or "four dogs." Larger numbers and vowel harmony A language should, naturally, have a way to discuss really large numbers. In Kuraŋo, this is as simple as attaching multiple suffixes to ɾɔ. However, there is a catchː (1) ɾɔ-xaɾa-zaɾa-sata "One hundred seven" (2) *ɾɔ-xaɾa-zuɾu-sata "(Intended) One hundred seven" As I said earlier, there is an overarching vowel harmony rule based on whether or not the initial numeral suffix is odd or even. Looking at the numeracy suffixes above, a noticeable pattern emerges, where odd numeral suffixes have /a/ as their vowels and even numeral suffixes (and zero) have /u/ as their vowels. The suffix that attaches closest to the root ɾɔ ''determines the vowel harmony for the rest of the numeral construction. Ordinality Ordinality in Kuraŋo is a lot more simple than English ordinality. There are no semantic classes of objects that take different ordinal morphology ("tertiary" versus "third")--all take the same suffix ''-ta. ''For example, ''ɔʔatitakutu ''would translate to "the fourth dog" (compare with ''ɔʔatikutu ''"four dogs" above). Ordinality and calendar terms The ordinal suffix is used on the roots "year," "day," "week," and "month" to express calendar terms. * ''di ''is the root for "day." ''ditaxaɾanaβa ''would translate to "the nineteenth day," and ''dixaɾanaβa ''to "nineteen days." * ''ʔu ''is the root for "week." ''ʔutaʔuʔuzuɾu ''would translate to "the eightieth week," and ''ʔuʔuʔuzuɾu ''to "eighty weeks." * ''mɔ ''is the root for "month." ''mɔtatara ''would translate to "March (litː the third month)," and ''mɔtara ''to "three months." * ɰi is the root for "year." ''ɰitaduzuzuruxuɾusuŋu ''would translate to "2015 (litː the 2015th year)," and ''ɰiduzuzuruxuɾusuŋu ''to "2015 years." Multiplicative adverbs Cardinal number constructions can be derived into multiplicative adverbs "double, triple, quadruple" as they can in English, using an additional root that is mutually exclusive with the noun slot. This root is ''dɔɾɔ. An example would be dɔɾɔsata, which translates to "septuple." Morphosyntax of numeracy constructions Other useful numeracy constructions There are several other common constructions where numeracy suffixes come in handy. * Last names: ʔaŋataduzu "last name (litː second name)" * Secondary emotionsː ''gatitixusi gaŋaⱱuɸupataduzusi ''"I love someone, but I am also scared" (litː I love someone, my second emotion is fear)